Chapter 119 Champa Rice【VIP】
After everyone finished drinking the wine on the table, Yang Jizong called the waiter downstairs to bring up two jars of Shaodaozi.
The moment the liquor entered their throats, the runners became more liberated and started to play drinking games and talk freely on the table.
The meal was a great pleasure for both the host and the guests.
After the banquet, Li Xin was already drunk and unconscious. His brothers helped him out of the private room and downstairs.
"You go back first. Xiaofu and I will go see Lord Li and explain this matter to him. We will meet directly in Shahe Township tomorrow." Yang Jizong raised his hand to rub his temples and bowed to Liu Chuang.
He drank a little too much today, and mixing two kinds of alcohol together does make people more intoxicated.
"Then please say hello to the adults for us." Liu Chuang bowed and reached out to support Li Xin when the yamen runners were about to throw him to the ground.
Zhao Xiaofu watched the yamen runners leave and hurried forward to support Yang Jizong. "Teacher, I've asked the kitchen staff to prepare some hangover soup. Please rest here for a while, and I'll take care of the rest."
Yang Jizong raised his eyes to look at Zhao Xiaofu, and saw that his face was only a little paler than usual, but his eyes were still clear, so he nodded.
On this side, Zhao Xiaofu entered the yamen with cakes and did not see Li Menghong, but he told the old official that they decided to take Li Xin and Liu Chuang to plant winter wheat.
The old official looked at the cakes and milk tea in front of him, muttered something, and as soon as Zhao Xiaofu left, he reported the matter to Li Menghong.
"Let them go. Just find someone else to take the place of Li Xin and Liu Chuang." They were just two yamen runners, he didn't take them seriously.
Li Menghong sipped his milk tea and couldn't help but tease the old official, "This Zhao Xiaofu is more capable than Yang Jizong. Let's see how far he can go in the future. Maybe he can be used by me."
They all witnessed Zhao Xiaofu's talent. Due to his humble background, he would be easier to control than Yang Jizong when he entered the imperial court.
The old official's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.
Fearing that Zhao Xiaofu would take his place in the future, he stepped forward and flirted with Li Menghong: "As long as the students in our county have a career in government, it's all thanks to you, sir. But this student Zhao is questioning your willingness to continue with the road construction today, saying that he embezzled the money invested by the merchants. He..."
Before the old official could finish his words, Li Menghong stood up from his chair with a serious expression and asked, "Did you hear Zhao Xiaofu say this yourself?"
"No, no, I inferred this based on what he said."
Li Menghong secretly breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand to signal the old official to leave.
Fortunately, it was just the old official's own blind guess. If he really heard it with his own ears, it must have been Yang Jizong's order.
Thinking of this, Li Menghong had to do things more secretly. He had to leave a way out for himself in the future.
Zhao Xiaofu returned to Zhiwei Building and saw a bowl of untouched hangover soup in front of the teacher. He immediately grinned, picked it up and drank it all in one gulp.
The two of them sat in the restaurant for a while to get rid of most of the alcohol, and then they walked to the city gate and took the ox cart back to the village.
In the embroidery room, Xu learned from Yang Wenying that her son would follow Yang Jizong to various villages to teach the people how to grow winter wheat the next day. So she returned home in the afternoon and started packing his bag.
When Zhao Xiaofu returned home, as soon as he pushed the door open and entered the yard, he saw his mother sitting in her room crying.
"Mom, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Xiaofu put the books on the table and walked towards her.
Mrs. Xu took out a handkerchief and wiped away her tears. When she smelled the alcohol on her son, she immediately stood up and said, "It's okay. I'll make you some sobering soup."
"No need, Mom. My teacher and I drank some hangover soup before we came back." Zhao Xiaofu looked at the bundle on the bed, opened it, and was a little amused: "Mom, why did you stuff all the winter clothes in there?"
"Then isn't mother worried that you'll be cold outside?"
"The teacher said that we can come back every half a month, so there is no need to bring these things. Besides, it is still early for winter." Zhao Xiaofu packed up his big cotton jacket and long cotton trousers and put them back in the wooden box.
After hearing this, Mrs. Xu felt completely relieved: "Son, whatever you want to eat tonight, I will make it for you."
Zhao Xiaofu licked his lips and thought for a moment, "I want to eat the noodles my mother pulled."
"Okay, Mom will prepare it right away." Xu walked happily to the kitchen and considerately closed the door for her son.
at the same time.
After returning to the village, Yang Jizong went to Shen's School first and explained the learning tasks for the next half month to the students in each class. He clearly arranged which articles to read and how many words to write every day.
"Don't think you can fool around just because I'm not here. Who are you fooling? You're the only ones fooling yourself. I'll be back in half a month to check on your academic performance."
"For those who fail the monthly quizzes, please leave voluntarily and don't take up other people's spots. Do you understand?"
As soon as Yang Jizong finished speaking, a uniform response came from the classroom.
"teacher,
Yang Jizong came and told them that they didn't need to pay attention to classroom discipline in the future, and those who wanted to stay and study should do so on their own initiative.
After he finished speaking, Mr. Luo, Xiaofu's good friend, won't they come to teach in the future?"
"Well, they won't come. They are studying and preparing for the exam in the city now." Yang Jizong thought of Li Menghong's intention of recruiting these students, and his eyes turned cold.
After seeing this, Luo Dunzi stopped asking questions.
When Yang Jizong returned home, he found that the yard was empty. He remembered that Ayao had been digging a canal in the wasteland at the dinner table that morning, so he turned around, closed the door, and walked towards the house near the reeds.
Before I got close, I could faintly hear someone talking.
"Cousin, this canal is a bit narrow. This wasteland is quite far away from Yan River and the terrain is a bit high. We have to widen the river channel so that we can divert water into the fields." Tian Baolai was clearing the reeds beside the waterway, waving the sickle in his hand.
The channel they dug was a reed marsh beside the Yan River. To ensure that water flowed into the ditch, they could not divert it directly from the main trunk of the Yan River. Otherwise, the water would be too strong and would destroy the entire wasteland. Therefore, Chen Yao chose the area near the reed marsh when she bought the wasteland a few days ago.
"Cousin, let's try it first. If it doesn't work, we can widen it." This piece of wasteland had already been plowed by cattle. She had carefully picked out the stones and grass roots under the surface. Now it was very easy to dig a canal.
"Okay, then Ayao, you come up first, I'll try to dig it through." Tian Baolai watched his cousin go up the ridge of the field and then dig through the blocked area.
A trickle of water continuously flowed from the reed marsh into the wasteland. The brother and sister stared at the dug ditch with bated breath, making sure that the water flowed smoothly without any obstruction.
So when Yang Jizong stood behind them, they didn't notice.
"Ayao, at this flow rate, I'm afraid this wasteland won't be able to be turned into paddy fields tomorrow. The channel needs to be widened as my cousin said, and it only needs to be widened an inch further." Yang Jizong suddenly spoke from behind Chen Yao, scaring her.
"Zi'an, when did you get home?" Chen Yao turned around and faced him, smelling the alcohol on him. "Do you want to go home and rest?"
Yang Jizong shook his head to show that he was not drunk. He bent down, rolled up his trouser legs and long sleeves, snatched the hoe from Chen Yao's hand, took off his shoes and socks, and went down to the muddy wasteland with Tian Baolai to dig a canal.
Chen Yao looked at his skillful movements, feeling a little amused, but she soon discovered that after the channel was widened, the water flow was indeed much stronger than before, and the flow rate would not wash away the soil on both sides of the channel.
There was a lot of debris flowing into the wasteland along with the water, including rotten leaves and tree branches, all floating on the water.
The three of them waited on the ridge of the field for a full hour before the water flowed over the wasteland to form a paddy field and reached the depth that Chen Yao wanted. Then Tian Baolai blocked the source with stones and silt again.
Chen Yao looked at the two men's muddy legs and feet and spoke again: "Cousin, you and Zi'an should pick up all the rotten leaves and branches on the water surface. I will have to spread the silkworm manure in the paddy fields later when my father brings back."
So the two of them walked through the paddy field, picking up all the rotten leaves and tree branches and throwing them on the edge of the field.
"Ayao, what crops are you going to plant in this paddy field? Can you tell me now?" Tian Baolai wiped the dirt off his legs with reed leaves and put on straw sandals.
After Yang Jizong wiped his legs and feet, he put on his shoes and socks, and then broke a stick to help Chen Yao pick off the mud on the soles of her shoes.
Chen Yao held Yang Jizong's arm and saw that the dirt on his feet had been poked off. Then he patted the grass on his trouser legs and said, "Cousin, I plan to plant Champa rice in the paddy field."
“What is Champa rice?”
"These are the seeds that Sister Baozhu asked my uncle to bring back from Jiangnan. She wrote down the sowing instructions in a letter. I'll show it to you when we get home."
"Ayao, you still haven't told me what kind of crop this Champa rice is?"
Chen Yao rubbed the back of her head, unsure how to explain it to her cousin. She looked at Yang Jizong standing beside her and asked, "Zi'an, did you hear about Champa rice when you were studying abroad?"
Yang Jizong nodded and explained to Tian Baolai what Champa rice was.
This Champa rice is particularly popular in the east and west routes of Jiangnan and the Liangzhe route. It is high-yielding, early-maturing, drought-resistant, and can grow in any place. Because it originally came from Champa, it is called "Champa rice" by the people.
"This crop is similar to the brown rice we eat now, but it is fuller than brown rice and the rice made from it is sweeter."
Tian Baolai was delighted when he heard this: "Isn't that the japonica rice sold in the grain store? Ayao, you want to grow japonica rice, right?"
"You could understand it that way, but Champa rice matures earlier than traditional japonica rice. Traditional japonica rice matures in about 180 days, but Champa rice can be harvested in as little as 50 days. The same paddy field can be rotated multiple times a year."
"Ayao, when are you going to plant Champa rice? I need to learn how to sow it with you. If this Champa rice can really bring us a good harvest in the future, then we can convert all the wasteland suitable for growing Champa rice into paddy fields."
Chen Yao nodded in agreement: "Then cousin, come with me tomorrow to soak the seeds and germinate them. The rice seeds my cousin sent back to us are few, otherwise we could open up another piece of wasteland to conduct more experiments."
When Tian Baolai heard that there were not many seeds left, he immediately said, "Let's go home and write a letter, asking my mother and Baozhu to buy some more rice seeds and send them back."
Chen Yao and Yang Jizong followed him and laughed: "Cousin, we don't know if this will work yet, you can ask your aunt and cousin to buy more seeds, just in case-"
"It's okay, cousin. If we fail to grow it, we can just shell it and eat it ourselves. We can also let our family taste how delicious the rice in Jiangnan is." Tian Baolai turned around and comforted the two of them.
Chen Yao and Yang Jizong both gave him a thumbs up. Since their cousin could have such an open-minded attitude, he would definitely be able to succeed in anything in the future.
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